inspiration comes from expression

weight loss journey

So it’s been a week since I started the sugar free thing, and so far I’m pretty happy with my progress. I’ve lost 2.4kgs, which may only be down to not boozing as much as usual, but I’ll take it anyway.

As for avoiding sugar it’s been fairly easy in the most part but I have been caught out a couple of times with things I thought would be OK and weren’t, such as carrots and chickpeas. Whilst I know these aren’t major, it’s still interesting to find out what does and doesn’t have sugar in it, whether naturally occurring or added. I’ve consumed an average of 3.4 grams of sugar a day. Whilst this is way below the national average of 37 grams (which let’s face it is a hideous amount), it’s still a bit higher than I would have liked.

My worst day was Saturday the 3rd when I had some bubbles, they were 6 grams! If I remove that from the equation it’s only 2.5 grams per day, so I do have to keep an eye on the ole bubbles!

Deciding what to eat has been ‘OK’ I’m mostly eating meat and salads. I certainly don’t miss or crave anything, it’s just more of a chore deciding what to eat. Normally we have homemade hamburgers once a week, we haven’t had them this week because I couldn’t decide how to replace the bun.

I haven’t had any side effects, either positive or negative, that I am aware of, perhaps week two will start showing some of these.

If you have any questions about my sugar free progress feel free to hit me up!

So there has been a lot of noise recently about how bad sugar is for us, it’s toxic, more addictive than cocaine, etc. etc. and there may well be some credible science behind that but for most of us it means nothing unless it impacts us personally. For me it was photos of myself in the weekend looking far from the svelte size 10 I was two years ago. So having procrastinated about my weightloss for nearly the whole year once again I’m on the band wagon and to kick things off, and keep it interesting, because let’s face it dieting is farken boring, I’ve decided to go sugar free for the month of October, and possibly beyond!

Reading up on this over the past few days, there are people who have struggled a lot and others who breeze through. I’m hoping I’m the latter. I don’t eat a lot of ‘direct’ sugar, e.g. I put sugar in my coffee, but I don’t eat lollies, and infrequently have chocolate, I do however drink a lot of alcohol and we know that has lots negatives for anyone trying to lose weight. So yes, I am also giving up alcohol (with the exception of the races on the 10th, and possibly the 22nd when we launch our new project). So with those big things out of the way it’s going to be a matter of trying to keep the indirect sugar out the things I eat. There is hidden sugar in a lot of innocent looking food!

So today it’s clean, clean, clean!

Fingers crossed for an easy month, a decent loss, and all the benefits that no sugar apparently offers!

On Saturday I broke my #Dry100 and had a drink (or five) and woke up yesterday with a very sore head! 31 days dry and my alcohol tolerance was definitely depleted, and given the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything it wasn’t surprising I’d feel a bit under the weather.

Today I decided I needed to kick it up a notch and went for a run. Well not ‘really’ a run, more a wog (walk/jog), and only 3kms, but it was something – better than nothing, and I ran along the walkway and listened to the waves. It was good, even though it was bloody freezing!

I’m also going to try and get some of my ‘100’ items going too, will try and get out of bed early tomoro but it’s not easy when it’s so cold in the house!

Found the below on Pinterest and thought it was perfect for today’s MM

Haven’t thought about drinking in terms of really wanting a drink. I’ve had the old ‘A glass of wine would be nice right now’ thought, but that’s quickly gone with someone flight of fancy #oohshinythings

Macros have been killing me smalls! My sugar has been out of control, even though my calories are sitting at an average of 620 calories per day – my sugar was 77 grams on Monday! Gah!

Managed to pull it back in the last couple of days, but clearly have to be more vigilant – so easy to let those things slip even when calories are in control.

Tomorrow night will be my first real test with a visit to a pub with work. Will have to avoid food and booze. Not an easy ask but it’ll be so worth it at the end of the day (well 92 days now) 😉

Happy thirsty Thursday to y’all, don’t forget those of you who are Dry Julying this is your last weekend before it starts.

So this weight thing has been all over this year. Mostly up. Some down. And it’s now time to set some serious goals.

On Thursday the 19th of June it will be 100 days until Ladies Day and on that day last year I was a mere 700gms from my goal weight. Some 260 odd days since then I am more than 10kgs from that weight and knowing the second half of the year is going to go as fast as the first I’m laying it out. So here goes!

100 x 100 – a loss of 100gms a day for 100 days is 10kgs #kaboom

100 days alcohol free – no way I can lose that weight if I drink so that’s out

100 kilometres – As I’m not running at all at the moment I’m starting this from scratch. Might not seem like a great distance but it’s about 90kms more than I’ve done in the past six months.

100 x 100 x 100 squats, push ups, planks – again not that many but more than I’ve been doing!

Happy with today’s weigh in. I’ve lost a kilo since the last weigh in and have reached the first of my weight loss goals, back to 30kgs lost.

A total of 3.5kgs for the month so far,that’s pretty damn good.

I have been thinking about exercise a bit lately too, I just feel like I need to get moving and I could take advantage of this fine weather. My only hesitation is potentially stalling the weight loss progress as happened last time. I really do want to get working on my arms if nothing else and I know this will be fine, I just need to get motivated to get out of bed a little earlier and do some push ups and planks.

Let’s see if that happens this week, after all it’s only a month until Fashions On The Field and I want to rock my outfit! [Which I don’t even have yet!].

Oh Yeah it’s the first weigh-in for 2014 and the first week has been kind to me, with a 2.5kg loss, taking my total loss closer to my first weight goal for the year – getting back to 30kgs lost. I’m at 29.1kgs, so 900gms to go to hit that first marker.

I also wanted to answer some questions that have come up over the week.

Why do I weigh everyday?

I know a lot of people do weigh everyday and many choose to only weigh weekly, and some even longer. I guess it depends on why you weigh. For me there’s no way I could wait a week to see if I had lost, especially if there was no loss I’d feel like I’d wasted a week! I also use the weigh-in to my advantage. If it’s good, then I carry on as usual, if it’s bad it makes me resolve to try harder.

Another reason to weigh more often for me is the mental ‘let off’ which you get when you weigh in weekly, you know you have a whole week before you need to be accountable again and that tends to make me allow myself a treat (or two) because I know I have time to ‘fix’ it. If I weight daily there’s not let off, I’m accountable every. single. day. Far better for me.

Why don’t I believe on ‘starvation mode’

There’s a whole blog post about this but fundamentally it’s because our bodies are smart. It doesn’t deliberately hurt itself until there is no alternative and for most of us that’s a loooooong way off. Unless you have next to no body fat (around 6%) and are actually starving yourself (not eating at all) your body will call on your fat reserves long before it starts to do anything detrimental to your muscles, organs, etc. At present I feel like I have at least 5kgs, maybe 10, of excess ‘fat’. Based on 5kgs that’s some 38,500 calories to spare, excluding eating any food. Based on a BMR of 1355 (my current calculated daily) it would take me 4 weeks of not consuming one calorie (yeah that’s not happening!) just to use my existing fat stores and even then I know I have plenty in reserve.

What do I eat?

At the moment I’m going for the lowest calorie option, which clean being the secondary consideration. Pea protein in the form of protein shakes & puddings. Low calorie, high nutrient soup. Tuna. Salad, salad, and more salad! I chuck chickpeas and chia seeds into my salads for added protein, and nutrients. High calcium, low fat dairy. Beef and lamb. Cheese!

What don’t I eat?

Pasta, rice, bread, potatoes. Processed food. No alcohol until mid February and then it’ll be low carb all the way.

I know this isn’t for everyone, but it works FOR ME. I lose weight, I feel good, I look good, and I learn how to be healthier along the way. Yes, I went backwards and ate processed crap, I drank too much, I didn’t track my calories. I gained. That’s the fundamental basis of weight loss. My intake was more than my out put the scales went up. Right now my intake is less than my out out and voila, weight loss! #seewhatididthere

There’s no magic, it’s basic science. The tricky part is getting your mind to control your body and not the other way round. That’s the HARD bit!